Papua New Guinea
Name
| Official name | Independent State of Papua New Guinea — Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini (Tok Pisin) · Papua Niu Gini (Hiri Motu) |
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| Former names | The Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1949–71) and of Papua New Guinea (1971–75) under Australia; the Territory of Papua (1906–49), the British New Guinea of 1884–1906; the Territory of New Guinea of the Australian mandate (1921–49), the Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and the Bismarck Archipelago of German New Guinea (1884–1914); the Republic of North Solomons of Bougainville's declaration of 1 September 1975 |
| Demonym | Papua New Guinean; Papuan for the south, Niuginian; PNG |
| Meaning of the name | Papua — from the Malay papuwah, "frizzy-haired," the name Jorge de Meneses gave the island in 1526; New Guinea — Nueva Guinea, the name of Yñigo Ortiz de Retes of 1545 for a people he thought like the Guinea coast's; the "land of the unexpected" of the tourist boards |
| Motto | "Unity in Diversity" — the unofficial motto of the 800 tribes |
Quick facts
| Capital | Port Moresby — Pot Mosbi — the harbor of Captain Moresby of 1873, the capital of Papua from 1884 and the state since 1975; about 400,000 in the National Capital District; no road to the Highlands |
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| Largest cities | Port Moresby; Lae, about 200,000, the industrial port of Morobe and the head of the Highlands Highway; Mount Hagen of the Western Highlands, the sing-sing town; Madang of the north coast; Goroka of the coffee and the show; Wewak of the Sepik; Kokopo, the capital of East New Britain since Rabaul was buried in 1994; Kimbe of the palm oil; Popondetta; Mendi; Arawa and Buka of Bougainville; Wabag of Enga; Daru of the Torres Strait |
| Official languages | Tok Pisin — the Melanesian pidgin of the plantations become the creole of the nation, the first or second language of 4 million and more, "Papua Niugini i gat planti tok ples"; English, the language of the government, the schools and the law, the first language of 2%; Hiri Motu, the trade language of the Papuan coast of the Motu; Papua New Guinean Sign Language, official since 2015; the 840 languages of the villages, the most of any country on earth, 12% of the world's, Enga of 230,000 the largest, Kuman, Melpa, Huli, Kuanua of the Tolai, Motu |
| Currency | Kina — PGK, K; 100 toea; since 19 April 1975; about 4.1 to the U.S. dollar |
| Time zone | Papua New Guinea Time, UTC+10; Bougainville Standard Time, UTC+11, since 28 December 2014; no summer time |
| Calling code | +675 |
| Internet domain | .pg |
| ISO 3166 codes | PG · PNG · 598 |
| Vehicle registration code | PNG |
| Driving side | Left |
| Electricity | 240 V, 50 Hz; plug type I; the grid for a fifth of the people |
| Independence | 16 September 1975, from Australia, by the act of the Australian and the PNG parliaments — Michael Somare the first prime minister, Sir John Guise the first governor-general, the flag raised at Hubert Murray Stadium at dawn; self-government 1 December 1973; the constitution written by the Constitutional Planning Committee of the Papua New Guineans themselves; the fiftieth of 16 September 2025 with the UN Secretary-General and the royal message |
| National days | 16 September, Independence Day, the sing-sings and the flag; 23 July, National Remembrance Day, for the Kokoda campaign and the dead of 1942; 26 August, National Repentance Day, since 2011; the King's Birthday of June; Good Friday, Easter Monday; 1 January; 25 and 26 December; the Goroka and Mount Hagen shows of September and August; the provincial days; the Bougainville Day of 15 June |
| Constitution | 16 September 1975 — the Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, written by the country's own committee under John Momis and adopted by the House of Assembly on 15 August 1975, the "home-grown" constitution: the King as head of state with the governor-general chosen by the Parliament, the prime minister of the Parliament's majority, the National Parliament of one house, the Supreme and National Courts, the National Goals and Directive Principles of the Melanesian ways, the provinces of 1977; the Organic Laws of the provinces, the parties and the Bougainville peace; amended on 12 March 2025 by the vote of 92 to declare the country Christian in its preamble, the Bible a national symbol, "the National Goals reaffirmed," the churches' cheer and the secular objection |
| Population | 7,275,324 at the census of 2011, the last completed, the census of 2021 abandoned; about 10.8 million (UN, 2026 est.) and 11.8 million by the government's count — the most populous Pacific island state, the census of 2024 the promise |
| Area | 462,840 km² (178,704 sq mi) — land 452,860 km², water 9,980 km²; the mainland about 85%, New Britain 36,500 km², Bougainville 9,300, New Ireland 8,650, Manus |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A field divided diagonally from the upper hoist to the lower fly, the upper triangle red with a golden Raggiana bird-of-paradise in flight and the lower black with the five white stars of the Southern Cross, one of them smaller — the red and black the colors of the ceremonial dress of a hundred tribes and of the German flag of the north, the bird the national bird and the feather of the sing-sings, the Southern Cross of the sky the country shares with Australia; designed in 1971 by Susan Karike, a 15-year-old schoolgirl of Yule Island, in a national competition, adopted by the House of Assembly on 1 July 1971 in place of the Australian design of the bird on a tricolor, and raised at independence on 16 September 1975.Flag of Papua New Guinea |
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| National emblem | A Raggiana bird-of-paradise perched on a kundu drum, the hourglass drum of the dances, and a ceremonial spear, in gold and red on a plain field, with the words "Papua New Guinea" beneath; adopted 1 July 1971 with the flag; the bird of the passports, the stamps and the kina |
| National anthem | "O Arise, All You Sons" — the words and music of Thomas Shacklady, the Australian bandmaster of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary band, chosen in the competition of 1975 and adopted at independence; "O arise all you sons of this land, let us sing of our joy to be free"; the "sons" the daughters sing |
| National motto | "Unity in Diversity" — unofficial |
| National colors | Red, black and yellow |
| National animal | The Raggiana bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea raggiana, the national bird of the flag and the emblem, the 38 species of the birds of paradise the island's own; the dugong of the coasts, the tree kangaroos of the Huon, the cassowary of the forest, the cuscus of the bilas, the saltwater crocodile of the Sepik, the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, the largest butterfly in the world, of Oro; the pig of the wealth and the feasts; widely cited |
| National flower | None declared — the Sepik blue orchid, the 3,000 orchids of the island, the kunai grass of the Highlands, the sago palm of the swamps, the kwila of the timber; the bilum bag of the string the women weave the national craft; the kina shell; widely cited |
| National dish | The mumu — the pig, the sweet potato, the taro and the greens steamed in the pit of hot stones under banana leaves and earth for the feast of every sing-sing; the kaukau sweet potato of the Highlands, the staple of two-thirds of the people; the sago of the Sepik and the swamps, the saksak; the taro and yams of the coast, the bananas, the aibika greens in coconut cream; the lamb flaps of the towns, the tinned fish and rice; the betel nut and the mustard of every chewer, the buai; the SP Lager; widely cited |
| National sport | Rugby league — the national sport by the passion and the declaration, the only country where it is, the Kumuls of the World Cups since 1975 and the quarterfinals, the Papua New Guinea team of the NRL granted on 12 December 2024 for 2028 with the Australian government's A$600 million, the "PNG Chiefs" of the plans; rugby union, football of the Kapuls, the cricket of the Barramundis of the T20 World Cup of 2024, the netball; the Pacific Games hosted in 1969, 1991 and 2015; the Olympics since 1976 without a medal; the canoe races of the Motu hiri; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag and the emblem by the National Identity Ordinance of 1971 and the Constitution; the anthem by the act of 1975; the bird by the ordinance; the Bible by the amendment of 2025; the animals, plants, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Oceania, in Melanesia — the eastern half of New Guinea north of Australia across the Torres Strait, Indonesia's Papua to the west across the 141st meridian, the Solomon Islands to the east beyond Bougainville, the Bismarck Sea and the Coral Sea; the Ring of Fire of the volcanoes and the earthquakes |
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| Land borders | 824 km (512 mi) with one neighbor — Indonesia, the border of the 141st meridian drawn by the Dutch and the British in 1895 and the bend of the Fly, the Wutung crossing of Vanimo, the Papuan independence fighters of the OPM who cross it and the 10,000 West Papuan refugees of the camps since the 1980s; the Torres Strait treaty of 1978 with Australia across the water, the islands 4 km from the coast Australian |
| Coastline | 5,152 km (3,201 mi) — the Gulf of Papua of the deltas and the mangroves, the Torres Strait of the Daru islands, the Coral Sea of the Milne Bay islands, the Trobriands and the Louisiades, the Huon Gulf of Lae, the Bismarck Sea of Madang and the Sepik mouth, the north coast to Vanimo; the islands of New Britain and its Rabaul harbor of the caldera, New Ireland, Manus of the Lombrum base, Bougainville and Buka; the Kimbe Bay of the reefs, the Coral Triangle's heart with 600 corals; the Conflict Islands; the Tufi fjords |
| Highest point | Mount Wilhelm, 4,509 m (14,793 ft), in the Bismarck Range of the Highlands |
| Lowest point | The Pacific Ocean, 0 m |
| Mean elevation | 667 m (2,188 ft) |
| Rivers | The Sepik, 1,126 km, the longest, from the Victor Emanuel Range through the northern swamps to the Bismarck Sea, the river of the crocodile initiation scars and the haus tambaran spirit houses of the villages, its 70 km of floodplain a lake in the rains; the Fly, 1,050 km, of the south to the Gulf of Papua, the largest by its flow, the Ok Tedi tailings of 80,000 tons a day since 1984 that killed its fish for 1,000 km, the Strickland its tributary; the Purari of the hydro plans, the Kikori of the oil, the Markham and the Ramu of the valleys, the Wahgi of the Highlands, the Waria, the Musa; the rivers the roads of the swamps |
| Lakes | Murray, 647 km², the largest, the swamp lake of the Western Province that swells to 2,000 in the floods; Kutubu of the oil field, the Foi people's lake of the Southern Highlands; Chambri of the Sepik; Wisdom in the caldera of Long Island; the Sepik's oxbow lakes; the tarns of Mount Wilhelm, Piunde and Aunde; the Rabaul caldera's harbor |
| Terrain | The central cordillera along the island — the Highlands of the Bismarck, Kubor and Star ranges at 3,000 to 4,500 m with the valleys of the Wahgi, Goroka, Mount Hagen, Tari and the Enga at 1,500 m where a third of the people farm the sweet potato, the Owen Stanley Range of the Kokoda Track toward the capital; the northern coast and the Sepik and Ramu lowlands of the swamps; the southern plains of the Fly and the Gulf of Papua, the largest swamps of the Pacific; the volcanic islands of New Britain, Manus and Bougainville; the coral islands of Milne Bay; the karst of the Southern Highlands and the caves; the forest over 63% of it all |
| Climate | Tropical — hot and humid on the coasts at 27°C with 2,000 to 5,000 mm of rain, the wettest at Lae and the Gulf, the monsoon of December to April and the southeast trades of the rest; the Highlands cool at 20°C by day and frosty at night above 2,000 m, the "eternal spring" of Goroka; the drought of El Niño of 1997 and 2015–16 that starved the Highlands gardens and the frosts that killed the kaukau; the cyclones of the Coral Sea rare on the coast; the warming that pushes the malaria uphill |
| Natural hazards | Volcanoes — Rabaul's twin cones of Tavurvur and Vulcan that erupted on 19 September 1994 and buried the town under ash after the 500 dead of 1937, Mount Lamington of 21 January 1951 with 3,000 dead, Manam of the evacuated island, Ulawun of New Britain of 2019 and 2023, Bagana of Bougainville, the 16 active of the Ring of Fire; earthquakes — the Highlands earthquake of 26 February 2018, magnitude 7.5, with 160 dead and the gas plant shut, the Morobe of September 2022; the Aitape tsunami of 17 July 1998 with 2,200 dead on the Sissano lagoon; landslides — the Enga landslide of 24 May 2024 at Yambali in the Mulitaka district that buried the village, 670 dead by the UN's count and 2,000 by the government's, few bodies recovered; the floods of the Sepik and the Fly; the drought and the frost of El Niño; the boats — the two of the Duke of York Islands to Kokopo of 18 July 2026 with 27 of the 29 aboard dead; the tribal fighting and the sorcery killings the human hazard |
| Natural resources | Gold — Porgera of Enga, closed in 2020 and reopened in December 2023 under the state's 51%, Lihir of New Ireland, one of the largest gold mines in the world, Ok Tedi of the copper and gold, the Wafi-Golpu of Morobe of the permits, the Hidden Valley, the alluvial diggers of every river; copper — Ok Tedi since 1984, Panguna of Bougainville closed since 1989 and the largest copper deposit of the Pacific; natural gas — the PNG LNG of the Hides field since 2014 and the Papua LNG of the Elk-Antelope field of the decision of 2026; oil of Kutubu since 1992; nickel and cobalt of the Ramu mine of the Chinese; the timber of the logging concessions, the third-largest tropical log exporter; the tuna of the exclusive zone, a tenth of the world's catch; the palm oil, the coffee, the cocoa; the hydropower of the Purari; the seabed of the Solwara plans |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 2.6% by the formal count and the gardens of 80% of the people beyond it; forest about 63%, the third-largest rain forest of the world after the Amazon and the Congo, logged at the fastest rate of the tropics; the customary land of 97% of the country held by the clans |
| National parks | Few — Varirata National Park of 1969 above the capital, the first, of the birds of paradise; the McAdam of the Bulolo; the Tonda wildlife management area of the Western Province, the largest, of the wallabies and the Ramsar wetlands; the YUS Conservation Area of the Huon of 2009 of the tree kangaroos, the first under the Conservation Areas Act; the Kokoda Track of the walkers; the 3% of the land protected in name, the customary landowners the real keepers; the Kimbe Bay marine reserves; the Crater Mountain |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 1 — the Kuk Early Agricultural Site (2008), the 116 hectares of swamp in the Wahgi valley of the Western Highlands where the drainage ditches and the mounds show people planting taro and bananas from 7,000 years ago and draining the swamp from 4,000, one of the few places on earth where agriculture was invented; the Kokoda Track and the Owen Stanley Ranges, the Sublime Karsts, the Trans-Fly, the Milne Bay seascape and the Huon terraces on the tentative list; the bilum weaving of the nominations; no element on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 22 provinces — the 20 provinces of the four regions, the Highlands of Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Enga, Hela and Jiwaka of 2012, Southern and Western Highlands; the Momase of Madang, Morobe, East and West Sepik; the Southern of Central, Gulf, Milne Bay, Oro and Western; the Islands of East and West New Britain, Manus and New Ireland — with the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and the National Capital District, each with a governor who sits in the National Parliament; 89 districts of the open members; 326 local-level governments; the wards and the clans; the Autonomous Bougainville Government of its own president and house since 2005 |
People
| Population | 7,275,324 (census of 2011); about 10.8 million (UN, 2026 est.); 11.8 million by the government |
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| Population density | About 23 per km² (60 per sq mi) — the Highlands valleys at 100 and more, the Western Province at 3 |
| Population growth | About 1.8% a year — the fertility of the villages, the young of the towns, the count no one has made since 2011 |
| Median age | About 22 years |
| Life expectancy | About 66 years — the lowest of the Pacific islands, the malaria, the tuberculosis and the aid posts without medicine |
| Fertility rate | About 3.2 births per woman |
| Urban population | About 13% — the least urbanized country in the world but Burundi, the villages of the gardens the home of nine in ten |
| Adult literacy | About 64% — the lowest of the region, the schools of the missions and the fees |
| Ethnic groups | Melanesian about 95% — the Papuan peoples of the Highlands and the interior of the older settlement of 50,000 years, the Huli of Tari with their wigs, the Enga, the Melpa of Hagen, the Chimbu, the Eastern Highlanders of Goroka, the Dani and the Ok of the west, the Sepik river peoples of the Iatmul and the Abelam, and the Austronesian peoples of the coasts and the islands of the Lapita voyagers of 3,500 years ago, the Motu of the capital, the Tolai of the Gazelle, the Trobrianders of the kula, the Bougainvilleans of the blackest skin in the world; the Polynesians of the outliers of Nukumanu and Takuu; the Chinese of the trade stores since the German days and the new Chinese of the shops and the mines, the Australians, the Filipinos; the 800 tribes and the "wantok" system of the clan that carries all |
| Languages | About 840 living languages, the most of any country, in the Papuan families of the interior, the Trans-New Guinea phylum of 300 and the isolates, and the Austronesian of the coasts — Enga by 230,000, Huli, Melpa, Kuman of Chimbu, Kuanua of the Tolai, Motu, the languages of a few hundred speakers dying at the rate of the elders; Tok Pisin by 4 million and more as the language of the nation, the radio and the parliament, English by 2% as the mother tongue and by the educated as the second, Hiri Motu by the Papuan south, the Sign Language of 2015; the Tok Ples of every village |
| Religion | Christian 95.6% by the census of 2011 — Roman Catholic 26%, the missions of the Sacred Heart and the Divine Word of the coasts and the Highlands; Evangelical Lutheran 18.4%, the Germans of Finschhafen since 1886; Seventh-day Adventist 12.9%, the fastest growing; Pentecostal 10.4%; the United Church 10.3%, the Methodists and the London Missionary Society of the Papuan coast; the Evangelical Alliance 5.9%; Anglican 3.2%; Baptist 2.8%; the Salvation Army, the Bahai; the ancestral religions of 3% and the spirit world of the villages beneath the churches, the sorcery, the sanguma, of the accusations and the killings of the women, the Sorcery Act repealed in 2013 and the "glasman" trials; the "Christian country" of the constitution since 12 March 2025, the Bible on the Speaker's table since 2015 |
| Human Development Index | 0.576 (2023 data, 2025 report) — medium; about 154th of 193, the lowest of the Pacific |
| The wantok and the violence | The clan and the "wantok," the one-talk of the same language who owes and is owed, the system of the villages that runs the towns and the offices; the tribal fights of the Highlands with the guns of the 2010s in place of the bows, the Wapenamanda massacre of Enga of 18 February 2024 with 64 dead in the ambush of a clan, the Hela and Enga wars of every year, the compensation and the "payback"; the sorcery killings of the women accused of sanguma, burned and cut; the gender-based violence of the "national emergency" of two women in three, the Meri Seif buses; the raskol gangs of Port Moresby and Lae, the "Black Wednesday" riots of 10 January 2024 when the police walked out over a pay error and the crowds burned the shops with 22 dead and the emergency declared; the police of 6,000 for 10 million, the "fifty years" of the unbroken vote and the weak state; the Australian police of the deals; the customary land of 97% the shield and the trap |
| Sport | Rugby league — the Kumuls, the World Cup quarterfinals of 2017 and 2022, the Hunters of the Queensland Cup since 2014 and the NRL team of 2028 of the Albanese government's deal of 12 December 2024, the A$600 million and the 10,000 fans of the capital, the game of every village's Sunday; the Orchids of the women's league; rugby union of the Pukpuks; football, the Kapuls of the OFC and the women of the Nations Cup; the cricket of the Barramundis, the T20 World Cup of 2024 in the West Indies at Providence, the Lewas; the netball; the Pacific Games of 2015 at Port Moresby, the largest event the country held before APEC; the boxing; the kokoda runners; the Olympics of Paris 2024 with the swimmers and the weightlifters |
| Diaspora | About 50,000 abroad — the Australians of Cairns, Brisbane and the Torres Strait, the students and the seasonal workers of the Pacific labor scheme of 20,000 a year, the nurses of the Queensland hospitals, the 10,000 recruits the Pukpuk Treaty opens the Australian forces to; the Bougainvilleans of the Solomons; the West Papuans in from the west; the small Chinese and Australian return |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy of the Commonwealth realm — the King as head of state, the governor-general chosen by the National Parliament for six years, the prime minister elected by the Parliament, the National Executive Council of the ministers; the National Parliament of 118 of one house; the Supreme Court; the provinces with their governors and assemblies and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville with its own; the parties of the leaders more than the programs, the coalitions of the "camps" and the "vote of no confidence" the politics; the "unbroken record of democratic government" since 1975, "one of the few post-colonial states" of the line; "partly free" by Freedom House |
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| Head of state | King Charles III, since 8 September 2022, the King of Papua New Guinea, represented by the Governor-General; Sir Bob Dadae, the governor-general since 28 February 2017, the Lutheran layman of Morobe and the former defense minister, elected by the Parliament and re-elected in 2023 for the second six years; the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary and the "Sir" of the honors kept; the Queen's and the King's visits, the King's message of the fiftieth |
| Prime Minister | James Marape (Pangu Pati), since 30 May 2019 — the eighth prime minister; born 24 April 1971 at Tari in Hela, the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastor of the Huli, the graduate of the University of Papua New Guinea in political science, the member for Tari-Pori since 2007, the education minister of 2008–11 and the finance minister of 2012–19 under Peter O'Neill, whom he left on 11 April 2019 over the gas deal with Total and Exxon, taking the government from him in the vote of 101 to 8 seven weeks later; "Take Back PNG" and "the richest black Christian nation" his slogans; the survivor of the crisis of November 2020 when his ministers fled and came back, the winner of the election of July 2022 with Pangu's 39 seats, the largest of any party, re-elected unopposed on 9 August 2022; the no-confidence motions of February 2024 defeated 75 to 32, of September 2024 and of November 2024 that the Supreme Court ordered debated and the Parliament defeated 89 to 16 in April 2025 without debate, "the executive's dominance over the legislature," the BTI; the prime minister of the Christian amendment, the Pukpuk Treaty, the fiftieth, the Papua LNG waiting and the Bougainville tabling, "the referendum was legitimate, peaceful and overwhelming in its result, and we respect the voice expressed by the people of Bougainville," 25 August 2026, "this is not an ordinary parliamentary debate"; John Rosso the deputy prime minister; his term to the election of 2027 |
| The 2022 election | Held 4 to 22 July 2022 over the weeks of the polling in the 118 electorates, the 89 open seats and the 22 provincial and the 7 new of the redistribution, the limited preferential vote of three choices; Pangu Pati of Marape 39 seats, the largest, the People's National Congress of O'Neill 16, the United Resources Party 11, the National Alliance 7, the PNG Party, the independents 13; the violence of the count, about 50 dead in the Highlands of Enga and Hela, the ballots burned, the "worst election" of the observers, the women of two seats; Marape elected unopposed by the Parliament on 9 August 2022 with a coalition of 80 and more; the Governor-General's writs of 2027 due by the winter |
| Parliament | The National Parliament — Nesenel Palamen — of 118 members elected for five years, 96 from the open electorates and 22 from the provinces whose members are the governors, the limited preferential vote; Job Pomat (Pangu) the Speaker since 2017, the man of the Bible on the table and the 75% ruling; James Nomane the Leader of the Opposition; the building of 1984 in the shape of a Sepik haus tambaran with the mosaic facade the Speaker Zurenuoc of 2013 called ungodly and stripped; the "grace period" of 18 months after an election and 12 before the next when no no-confidence vote may be moved, the amendments that stretched it; the Organic Law of the parties; the 11 votes of no confidence attempted since 2019 |
| The next election | The general election of June–July 2027, the writs by the constitution's five years from the return of 2022; the Bougainville presidential and house elections of 2030 after those of September 2025; the local-level governments of 2027 |
| Bougainville | The Autonomous Region of Bougainville — the island of 9,300 km² and Buka of about 370,000 people, the northern end of the Solomons chain drawn into German New Guinea by the line of 1899, the Panguna copper mine of Rio Tinto's Bougainville Copper of 1972, the largest of the Pacific, whose royalties and ruin lit the war of 1988–98 of Francis Ona's Bougainville Revolutionary Army against the PNG forces and the blockade, 15,000 to 20,000 dead, the Sandline mercenaries of 1997 that felled the Chan government; the Burnham and Lincoln talks of New Zealand, the Bougainville Peace Agreement of 30 August 2001 with its autonomy and its referendum; the Autonomous Bougainville Government of 15 June 2005 at Buka, Joseph Kabui the first president, Ishmael Toroama, the former BRA commander, the president since 25 September 2020 and re-elected in September 2025; the referendum of 23 November to 7 December 2019 on the question of "greater autonomy" or "independence," 97.7% for independence, 176,928 of the 181,067 votes, "non-binding" by the agreement and the National Parliament's to ratify; the Era Kone Covenant of April 2022 and the Melanesia Agreement of June 2025 that the two governments "accept the decision of the National Parliament, in the first instance," the Joint Consultation Report; the Bougainville Leaders Consultation Forum's dates of July 2026, self-government on 1 September 2027 and full independence on 1 September 2030; the sessional order of June 2026 that set the ratification at three-quarters of the members, "both governments shook hands," Marape said, and the fear of the "other provinces" that Dr. Marat called "an uninformed knee-jerk reaction"; the result tabled in the National Parliament on 27 August 2026 with the ABG delegation in the gallery, the debate of 28 August and the adjournment, the two governments to meet in October 2026 to set the date of the vote, "a plan for the way forward for either outcome"; the Panguna reopening of the studies; the Bougainville that would be the world's newest country |
| The Pukpuk Treaty | The Papua New Guinea–Australia Mutual Defence Treaty, the "Pukpuk" of the Tok Pisin crocodile — announced in February 2025, agreed in September, signed at Canberra by Marape and Albanese on 6 October 2025 and in force on 8 July 2026 after the two parliaments' ratifications, "Papua New Guinea's first alliance with any country, and Australia's first in more than 70 years": the mutual defense of the Article 4 of NATO's manner by the defense minister's comparison, "not talking about interoperability, we're talking about totally integrated forces," the recruitment of up to 10,000 Papua New Guineans into the Australian Defence Force with the citizenship, the Australian access to the bases, the Lombrum naval base of Manus rebuilt by Australia as "the biggest infrastructure project" of its Pacific, the Exercise Puk Puk of the engineers at Lae, the Pitch Black of 2026; "tied to the hips," the defense minister Billy Joseph, "drawn into a larger conflict between the West and China," the doubters of the RFA's survey; Indonesia's call of October 2025 to respect its sovereignty; the New Zealand defense agreement of 23 July 2026 the second; the American defense cooperation agreement of 22 May 2023 of the six bases and the Coast Guard |
| China and the region | China the largest trading partner and the buyer of the logs and the LNG, the Ramu mine of the Metallurgical Corporation, the K3 billion Chinatown of Port Moresby welcomed in July 2026 as "a vote of confidence," the Chinese police talks of 2023 that Canberra headed off with the Pukpuk money, the Taiwan office of Port Moresby closed in 2026 to please Beijing; Australia the former ruler, the A$600 million of the NRL team, the police, the aid of a fifth of the budget and the treaty; the United States of the agreement of 2023 and the Lombrum; Indonesia of the border and the West Papuans, the Melanesian Spearhead Group's quarrel over the Papuan movement; the Solomon Islands of Bougainville's cousins; the Pacific Islands Forum of the Marape who chaired it; the APEC of November 2018 at Port Moresby with Xi and Pence the country's largest summit; the French of Papua LNG and the Macron visit of May 2026; the Bougainville that Beijing and Canberra both watch |
| Legal system | Common law of the Australian and English inheritance with the customary law of the villages the Constitution recognizes — the Supreme Court and the National Court under Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika since 2018, the district and village courts of the customary disputes, the compensation of the pigs and the kina; the death penalty on the books and never carried out since 1954, repealed by the vote of January 2022; the Sorcery Act repealed in 2013 and the sorcery-accusation-related violence of the killings continuing; the Glasman law of 2022; the anti-corruption commission of 2020 that started in 2023; the leadership tribunals of the ministers; the "Bible on the table" and the Christian preamble of 2025; the customary land of the 97% |
| Local government | 20 provincial governments with governors elected as the provincial members of the National Parliament and provincial assemblies under the reform of 1995, the National Capital District Commission of the capital under a governor, Powes Parkop since 2007, and the Autonomous Bougainville Government with its president, its House of Representatives of 39 and its own police and public service; 89 districts of the open members' development authorities and the "DSIP" money of K20 million each, the members the local kings; 326 local-level governments and 6,000 wards; the councils of the chiefs and the "big men" of the villages |
| Defense | The Papua New Guinea Defence Force of about 4,000 — the land element of the two battalions of the Royal Pacific Islands Regiment, the maritime element of the Guardian-class patrol boats of Australia at Lombrum and Port Moresby, the air element of the transport planes; the Australian officers and money of the "Defence Cooperation Program," the treaty of 2026, the Lombrum base, the American agreement, the New Zealand one; the Bougainville war of 1988–98 the force's only war and its worst chapter, the Sandline affair of February–March 1997 when the government hired the mercenaries and the commander Singirok refused; the soldiers' protest of April 2026 at Murray Barracks in the capital over the pay and the conditions, "quelled"; the police of the Constabulary of 6,000, the Australian police deployments of 2004 and 2013; no conscription; the Kokoda and Milne Bay of 1942, the "fuzzy wuzzy angels" of the stretchers |
| Foreign policy | "Friends to all, enemies to none," the line of every government, and the Pukpuk that chose — Australia the ally, the aid, the police and the rugby, the Torres Strait, the Manus detention center of the Australian asylum seekers of 2001–08 and 2012–21 the sore; China the trade and the offers; the United States of the bases; Indonesia of the border and the Melanesian Spearhead Group's Papuan quarrel; the Solomons and Vanuatu of the Melanesian kin, the Bougainville watched by Honiara; the Pacific Islands Forum, the fisheries of the Nauru Agreement; Israel of the embassy at Jerusalem opened in September 2023, the fifth country; the climate of the low islands of the Carterets, "the first climate refugees"; the King and the Commonwealth; the France of the LNG |
| United Nations | Member since 10 October 1975; the Secretary-General Guterres at the fiftieth of 16 September 2025, "a global example of democracy and climate change leadership"; the votes of the Pacific; the referendum observed by the UN of 2019; the peacekeepers few; the UN's count of the Enga dead |
| Other memberships | The Commonwealth (1975); the Pacific Islands Forum (1975); the Melanesian Spearhead Group (1986), a founder, its secretariat at Port Vila; APEC (1993), the host of 2018; the Pacific Community; the Nauru Agreement of the tuna; the WTO (1996); ASEAN as an observer since 1976, the special observer; the ACP; the Asian Development Bank; the treaty with Australia of 2025; the Torres Strait Treaty of 1978 |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$33 billion (2025, IMF) — the largest of the Pacific islands |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$3,000 (2025) by the UN's count of the people and less by the government's |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$4,500 (2025) |
| GDP growth | About 3.8% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025 on the reopened Porgera and the gold price, about 5% expected in 2026 with the Papua LNG decision the hope; inflation about 5%; the kina at about 4.1 to the dollar after the crawling depreciation the IMF program of March 2023 required, the foreign exchange rationing of the 2010s eased; the IMF's US$918 million program of 2023 extended; the growth "improved," the East Asia Forum; the resource projects of the 2010s and the "resource curse" of the wages that did not rise |
| Economy by sector | Agriculture about 22% of the output and the livelihood of 80% of the people, the gardens of the villages; industry about 40%, the mining, the oil and the gas about 30% of GDP and 90% of the exports; services about 38%; the informal economy the most of it |
| Currency | Kina (PGK) |
| Gas and oil | The PNG LNG project of ExxonMobil of 2014, US$19 billion, the largest investment of the country's history, the gas of the Hides and Angore fields of Hela piped 700 km over the mountains to the plant of Caution Bay near the capital, 8 million tons a year to Japan, China and Taiwan, the exports that doubled the economy on paper and the "shock" of the royalties that did not reach the landowners; the Papua LNG of TotalEnergies with Exxon and Santos of the Elk-Antelope field of the Gulf, 6.6 trillion cubic feet, "a project that will not be abandoned," Pouyanné told Marape in May 2026, the cost cut from US$18 billion to about US$14 billion by the retender, the development forum of June–July 2026 for the landowners and the final investment decision the company promised for 2026 after the delays of 2023–25; the P'nyang of Exxon of the 2030s; the Kutubu oil of 1992 and its decline; the state's Kumul Petroleum |
| Gold, copper and nickel | The Porgera gold mine of Enga, the Barrick and Zijin mine closed by the government in April 2020 and reopened on 22 December 2023 as New Porgera with the state and the landowners at 51%, the illegal miners and the tribal fights around it; Lihir of Newmont on its volcanic island, 700,000 ounces a year; Ok Tedi of the Star Mountains, the state's mine since BHP left it in 2002 with the river ruined, the copper and gold to 2050; the Wafi-Golpu of Newmont and Harmony of Morobe, US$5 billion, the special mining lease of 2023 and the fiscal fight; the Hidden Valley, the Kainantu, the Simberi; the Ramu nickel-cobalt of the Chinese MCC of 2012 with its deep-sea tailings; the Panguna of Bougainville idle since 1989 and its reopening the ABG's dream and its danger; the Frieda River copper of the Sepik of the plans and the protests; the Solwara seabed of Nautilus that sank in 2019; the gold the second export at a quarter |
| Farming and the forest | The gardens of the sweet potato of the Highlands, the taro, the sago and the bananas of 80% of the people; the coffee of the Highlands, the Arabica of Goroka and Hagen of the 400,000 smallholders, the largest export crop by the growers; the palm oil of West New Britain and Oro, the largest by value, the New Britain Palm Oil of the Malaysians; the cocoa of Bougainville and the Sepik, the country's revival on the island; the copra of the coasts, the rubber, the tea of the Wahgi, the vanilla of the Sepik; the logs of the forest at 3 million cubic meters a year to China, the third-largest tropical exporter, the "special agricultural business leases" of the land grab; the tuna of the Nauru Agreement, the canneries of Lae and Madang; the pigs of the wealth |
| Trade | Exports of about US$15 billion — the LNG at 40%, the gold at 25%, the copper, the nickel, the oil, the logs, the palm oil, the coffee and the cocoa — to Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore; imports of the fuel, the rice, the machinery and the cars from Australia, China and Singapore, the rice of the diet imported; the surplus of the resources and the deficit of the people; the kina's rationing |
| Public finances | Public debt about 50% of GDP, K60 billion, the deficits of the pandemic and the "Connect PNG" roads of K20 billion over the decade; the budget of K28 billion for 2026, the largest ever, the deficit of K5 billion; the IMF program of 2023–26; the Australian budget support and the loans; the sovereign wealth fund of the LNG that never filled; the district money of the members; the tax of the resources and the "Take Back PNG" of the state's stakes; the Bank of Papua New Guinea; the "fifty years" of the wealth in the ground and the poverty of 40% on it |
| Income classification | Lower-middle income (World Bank) |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Jacksons International Airport at Port Moresby, about 1.5 million passengers, the door of the country to Brisbane, Cairns, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong; Nadzab of Lae, the terminal of 2023 built with Japan's money; Mount Hagen, Goroka, Madang, Wewak, Tokua of Kokopo, Hoskins of Kimbe, Buka; the 500 airstrips of the missions and the mines on the mountainsides, the most of any country by the head, the planes the roads of the interior, the crashes of every year |
|---|---|
| Airline | Air Niugini, the national airline of 1973, the Boeing 737s and the Fokkers of the domestic web, the Airbus A220s of the renewal of 2024–26; PNG Air of the regional; the mission and charter operators of the Highlands, the Mission Aviation Fellowship; Qantas and Virgin of the Australian links, Philippine Airlines of Manila; the helicopters of the mines and the LNG |
| Main ports | Lae, the largest cargo port, the door of the Highlands Highway and the Morobe industry, the tidal basin of 2015; Port Moresby of the Motukea terminal of 2018 that replaced the downtown wharves; Kokopo and Rabaul of the Gazelle, Kimbe of the palm oil, Madang of the tuna, Wewak, Alotau, Kieta of Bougainville; the Lombrum naval base of Manus rebuilt by Australia with the Americans; the boats of the islands and the sinkings; the LNG terminal of Caution Bay |
| Railways | None — the tramways of the plantations and the mines of the German and Australian days gone, the Bulolo gold line of the 1930s; the "PNG railway" of the Chinese proposals of the 2010s never laid; the Sepik and the Fly the railways of the swamps |
| Roads | About 9,300 km (5,800 mi), about 3,000 paved — the Highlands Highway of 700 km from Lae to Mount Hagen and on to Mendi and Tari, the lifeline of the Highlands, the landslides, the holdups and the tolls of the tribes; the Okuk Highway of its name; no road from the capital to the Highlands or to Lae, the country in pieces by the mountains; the "Connect PNG" plan of 2020 for 16,000 km by 2040 and the Trans-Island Highway of the promise; the Sepik Highway; the Magi and the Hiritano of the capital's coasts; the Kokoda Track of 96 km walked by the Australians; the driving on the left; the PMV buses and the "dinghy" boats; the Ramu of the Chinese bridges |
| The Kokoda Track | The 96 km of the trail over the Owen Stanley Range from Owers' Corner near the capital to Kokoda of the campaign of July to November 1942, the Japanese advance to within 50 km of Port Moresby and the Australian retreat and counterattack, the "fuzzy wuzzy angels" of the Papuan carriers, the 625 Australians and the thousands of Japanese dead; the 5,000 trekkers a year of the Australian pilgrimage, the villages of the porters; the Milne Bay of August 1942, the first defeat of the Japanese on land; the Rabaul of the 100,000 Japanese of the war's end |
History in dates
| c. 50,000 BC | The first people of the Huon and the Sahul |
|---|---|
| c. 7000 BC | Kuk — the gardens of the Wahgi, the invention of farming |
| c. 1500 BC | The Lapita voyagers of the coasts |
| 1526 | Jorge de Meneses — Papua |
| 1545 | Ortiz de Retes — Nueva Guinea |
| 1873 | Captain Moresby at the harbor |
| 1884 | Germany takes the northeast, 3 November; Britain the southeast, 6 November |
| 1906 | Papua to Australia, 1 September |
| 1914 | Australia takes German New Guinea, 11 September |
| 1921 | The League mandate of New Guinea |
| 1933 | The Leahy brothers find the Highlands' million |
| 1937 | Rabaul erupts — 500 dead |
| 1942 | The Japanese take Rabaul, 23 January; Kokoda, July–November; Milne Bay, August |
| 1951 | Mount Lamington, 21 January — 3,000 dead |
| 1964 | The first House of Assembly elected |
| 1972 | Panguna opens |
| 1973 | Self-government, 1 December |
| 1975 | The kina, 19 April; independence, 16 September — Somare |
| 1988 | The Bougainville war begins, November — to 1998 |
| 1989 | Panguna closed, 15 May |
| 1994 | Rabaul buried, 19 September |
| 1997 | The Sandline affair, February–March |
| 1998 | The Aitape tsunami, 17 July — 2,200 dead |
| 2001 | The Bougainville Peace Agreement, 30 August |
| 2005 | The Autonomous Bougainville Government, 15 June |
| 2014 | The first LNG cargo, 26 May |
| 2018 | The Highlands earthquake, 26 February; APEC at Port Moresby, November |
| 2019 | Marape prime minister, 30 May; the referendum, 23 November – 7 December — 97.7% |
| 2021 | Somare dies, 26 February |
| 2022 | The election, July; Marape re-elected, 9 August |
| 2023 | The U.S. defense agreement, 22 May; Porgera reopens, 22 December |
| 2024 | Black Wednesday, 10 January — 22 dead; Wapenamanda, 18 February — 64; the Enga landslide, 24 May; the NRL team, 12 December |
| 2025 | The Christian amendment, 12 March; the no-confidence vote, April — 89 to 16; the Melanesia Agreement, June; Toroama re-elected, September; the fiftieth, 16 September; the Pukpuk Treaty, 6 October |
| 2026 | The soldiers' protest, April; the 75% order, June; the Pukpuk in force, 8 July; the Duke of York boats, 18 July — 27 dead; New Zealand's agreement, 23 July; Bougainville's dates, July; the referendum tabled, 27 August |
Records & firsts
| The most languages of any country | About 840 |
|---|---|
| The least urbanized country but one | About 13% |
| One of the cradles of agriculture | Kuk, c. 7000 BC |
| The second-largest island | New Guinea, shared |
| The third-largest rain forest | After the Amazon and the Congo |
| The largest butterfly | Queen Alexandra's birdwing |
| The most birds of paradise | 38 species |
| The most airstrips per head | About 500 |
| Land held by the clans | 97% |
| A referendum at 97.7% | Bougainville, 2019 |
| A first alliance | The Pukpuk Treaty, 8 July 2026 |
| The first Japanese defeat on land | Milne Bay, 1942 |
| An unbroken democracy since independence | 1975 |
| A census twenty years old | 2011 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Papua New Guinea?
The Independent State of Papua New Guinea — Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini in Tok Pisin — a realm of the Commonwealth under King Charles III that became independent of Australia on 16 September 1975 under Michael Somare, the "father of the nation," joining the two territories Australia had ruled since 1906 and 1914: Papua, the southeastern quarter of the island that Britain took in 1884, and New Guinea, the northeastern quarter and the islands that Germany took the same year and Australia seized in the first month of the First World War. The name is two names: Papua from the Malay "papuwah," the frizzy hair the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Meneses noted in 1526, and New Guinea from the Spaniard Yñigo Ortiz de Retes, who in 1545 thought the people resembled the Africans of the Guinea coast; the western half of the island is Indonesia's.
What is the capital of Papua New Guinea?
Port Moresby — Pot Mosbi — on the Gulf of Papua at the southeastern end of the island, the harbor that Captain John Moresby named for his father in 1873 beside the Motu villages of Hanuabada on their stilts, the capital of British Papua from 1884, the Allied base of the Kokoda campaign of 1942 and the capital of the state since 1975 — about 400,000 people in the National Capital District and more in the settlements, the Parliament of the haus tambaran design of 1984, the APEC Haus of 2018 on the water, the Ela Beach, the raskol gangs and the "Black Wednesday" riots of January 2024, a city no road connects to the Highlands where most of the country lives; Lae of the Morobe coast, the industrial port and the head of the Highlands Highway, is the second city, Mount Hagen the capital of the Highlands, Madang, Wewak, Goroka, Kokopo of the moved Rabaul and Kimbe follow.
How big is Papua New Guinea, and how many people live there?
About 462,840 km² (178,704 sq mi) — a little larger than California, the fifty-fourth-largest country — the eastern half of New Guinea, the second-largest island in the world, with the Bismarck Archipelago of New Britain, New Ireland and Manus, Bougainville of the northern Solomons and 600 smaller islands, a country of mountains to 4,500 m, rivers as wide as seas, swamps, volcanoes and reefs, with Indonesia's Papua across the only land border. No one knows how many people live in it: the last completed census of 2011 counted 7,275,324, the census of 2021 failed, the United Nations estimates about 10.8 million for 2026 and the government uses 11.8 million — the most populous of the Pacific islands by far, 87 percent rural, the least urbanized country in the world after Burundi, the 800 tribes of the most diverse society on earth, a third of them in the Highlands valleys unknown to the world until the 1930s.
What are the highest and lowest points of Papua New Guinea?
Mount Wilhelm, 4,509 m (14,793 ft), in the Bismarck Range of the Highlands on the border of Chimbu, Madang and the Western Highlands, the summit named by the Germans for the Kaiser's son, with the frost of the tropics and a view of both coasts on a clear morning; and the two seas. The Sepik, 1,126 km, and the Fly, 1,050 km, are the two great rivers, the Sepik of the crocodile cults and the carved houses of the north and the Fly of the Ok Tedi mine's tailings of the south, among the largest rivers of the world by their flow; the Highlands valleys of the Wahgi hold the Kuk swamp, where people drained and planted the land 7,000 years ago, one of the cradles of agriculture on earth and the country's only World Heritage site; Rabaul's volcanoes buried the town in 1994, and the Enga landslide of May 2024 buried a village with hundreds under it.
What currency does Papua New Guinea use?
The kina (ISO code PGK, K), of 100 toea, named for the pearl-shell money of the Highlands and the toea shell of the coast, introduced on 19 April 1975 five months before independence in place of the Australian dollar and issued by the Bank of Papua New Guinea, worth about 25 U.S. cents in the 2020s after the depreciation the IMF program of 2023 required; the shell money and the pigs of the bride price and the compensation still count in the villages, and the kina notes carry the birds of paradise. Clocks keep Papua New Guinea Time, UTC+10, the same as Brisbane, and Bougainville keeps UTC+11 since 2014; the country drives on the left, on the Australian rule.
Who governs Papua New Guinea?
King Charles III as head of state, represented by Governor-General Sir Bob Dadae, in office since 2017; and Prime Minister James Marape of the Pangu Pati, the Huli from Tari in Hela who left Peter O'Neill's cabinet and took his office on 30 May 2019 with the slogan "Take Back PNG," re-elected after the violent election of 2022 and the survivor of every no-confidence motion since, the last of them defeated 89 to 16 in April 2025, the longest-serving prime minister since Somare, who marked the nation's fiftieth birthday in September 2025 beside the UN Secretary-General. His government signed the Pukpuk Treaty of alliance with Australia, in force since July 2026, wrote Christianity into the constitution, waits on TotalEnergies' Papua LNG decision, and in August 2026 laid the result of Bougainville's independence referendum of 2019 before the National Parliament for the vote, at a three-quarters threshold, that will decide whether the country of 800 tribes lets one of them go. The next election is due in mid-2027.
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